I already had in mine the type of pendant lights I wanted. A bronze-colored, single pendant light with a tannish glass shade. In fact, I already had it picked out.
I showed Efiwym, my wife, the pendant from my phone. She said that she wanted to see it in person. However, it was not available at the store, only online. She wanted to shop around to see if she could find something similar at the store. Also, she hated the track lighting with the mini lamps for our overhead kitchen light. So, we went shopping.
We already did some shopping for the overhead light, but we never found something we liked and gave off enough lighting for that room. Our main focus was on the pendant lights, but with a little emphasis on the overhead light. And why not? We would be in the lighting departments of the stores.
We visited several big box home improvement stores. We even visited stores of the same company at multiple locations hoping to find a bronze pendant light with a tannish glass shade. As we perused through the lighting departments, Efwym, made the statement, “I definitely know what I do not want,” and there were plenty of those lights.
We were just about done with light shopping, when we found a light we really, really liked. It was at the big box home improvement store where you do right for less. First, the light was bronze and had this bell-shaped metal shade that covered the bulb. (I prefer that the bulb is covered to minimize the glare these LED’s give off.) Second, it was on clearance for $12.52! I do not think it was the driving force behind really, really liking it, but nonetheless it helped.
We searched the aisles trying to find the boxes for this light. I believe we spent about a half-hour just walking around the lighting department. Eventually, Efiwym asked a clerk for help. The tag for the light was about 10 feet up, but he was able to get the item number. He searched on his store device and found zero in stock at this store, but six in stock at another store 18 miles away. So…we said in unison, “Let’s go to that store.”
Efiwym mentioned that we should buy three lights to replace the one over the sink so it would match. For that price, we could have bought all six and sold them on Marketplace® or kept them as backups.
When we arrived at the new store, we immediately walked to the lighting department. However, that particular light was not on display. There was an aisle next to the lighting department with skids of “clearance” lighting. Aha! That is where it must be. Efiwym and I walked by these skids several times hoping to find the light. A store clerk approached me and asked if I needed help. Since he offered, I said yes.
I tried to describe to him the light fixture, but he asked me if I had an item number, so he could look it up. I suddenly remembered that I took a picture of the light at the other store. Unfortunately, the photo was blurry, and he could not read the item number. But he could read the name of the lighting fixture. However, he could not find it on their website. Efiwym suggested we call the other store, and he was willing to do that for us. He eventually got the item number, checked his store device and…they were out of stock. In fact, there was not a store in the country that had it in stock. 18 miles later, and no light that we really, really liked.